The new facility, located on the Waverock campus, will provide a world-class, LEED-certified home for the expanding Maps team, the company said.Ashish Kulshrestha | ET Bureau | Updated: May 19, 2016, 13:21 IST

HYDERABAD: Apple Thursday said that it is opening a new office in Hyderabad that will focus on development of Maps for Apple products. The investment will accelerate Maps development and create up to 4,000 jobs.

"India is an unparalleled country compared to any other country. I love the informality and love Hyderabad. I liked the culture and learned lot. We are honored to be here," Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the opening of Hyderabad centre.

The new facility, located on the Waverock campus, will provide a world-class, LEED-certified home for the expanding Maps team, the company said.

The iPhone maker did not specify the direct investment into this project, but ET has earlier reported that the centre in the city's IT corridor, will see Apple putting in around $25 million (Rs 170 crore).

Cook said that the talent here in the local area is incredible and the company is looking forward to expanding its relationships and introducing more universities and partners to it scales platforms as it scales our operations.

The Apple CEO is meeting university students and women in Hyderabad this afternoon.

"We are honored Apple chose Hyderabad as a home for its Maps development office. This will create thousands of jobs here and is a testament to our proactive approach, quality infrastructure and the excellent talent base we have in the region," said Telangana Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao.

Rao said that Hyderabad is one of the best cities in India in terms of infrastructure, education, and ecosystem. "As a state, we think like a start ups, like any other organization, which means business. In last 24 months, Hyderabad attracted some big names and investments. We appreciate Tim coming on behalf of state. We would like them to open own campus here, and would like to treat as partner in Apple growth story," he added.

Across India, Apple supports over 640,000 iOS app developer jobs and other positions related to the iOS ecosystem.

"Apple is one of the most innovative companies in the world and we are very proud they chose us to partner with for this important project. We are experts in geospatial data and we will be hiring thousands of people from the local area to support this effort," said Anup Jindal, RMSI's CEO.

Earlier, Apple launched an ambitious plan to tap into India's startup ecosystem with the iPhone maker announcing plans to set up what it calls a "design and development" startup accelerator in India's Silicon Valley, Bengaluru.